USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Our county and its people : A history of Hampden County, Massachusetts. Volume 2 > Part 31
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William G. Bates, in his "Pictures of Westfield," says: "We cannot conclude, without referring to an incident, in those times, strongly illustrating the power of the imagination. 'The meeting- house' was then unwarmed. There was no fireplace or stove in it, and no provision for heat, except a hot brick, or soap-stone, or a
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foot-stove. There were, besides, no sidewalks, as we have now; and the article of overshoes was confined to a few persons. The congregation used to wade 'to meeting,' sit with wet feet during a long sermon, and then hurry home to those restoring influences, which so effectually guarded against colds. The project was agi- tated, of warming 'the meeting-house.' It met with a furious opposition. Dr. Atwater was one of the innovators ; yet even his opinions could not dispel the dread of stove-heat. At last [many years after the death of Mr. Atwater], two stoves were put in. Some said, 'Oh how comfortable!' Said oth- ers, 'It makes me faint !' On the second Sunday, owing to a. neglect to provide fuel, no fires were built. But the stoves were there! One lady, of Court street, who was annoyed on the first Sunday, was still more annoyed on the second. She at first re- sorted to the reviving fan. She brandished it furiously, but its breezes could not cool that odious and distressing stove-heat. She untied her bonnet-strings, threw off her shawl, and opened her cloak; but the stove-heat increased upon her. Unable longer to sustain the fury of the Nebuchadnezzarean furnace, she rushed down the broad aisle, and sought relief from the internal heat in an atmosphere of 20 degrees below zero. It may readily be im- agined, that good old Parson Knapp was seized with a fit of coughing about that time, and that the congregation wondered, how two cold stoves could produce such an inflammation in only one person."
The relation of the ministers of early New England to their people is vividly portrayed by McMaster. "High as the doctors stood in the good graces of their fellow-men, the ministers formed a yet more respected class of New England society. In no other section of the country had religion so firm a hold on the affec- tions of the people. Nowhere else were men so truly devout, and the minister held in such high esteem. It had, indeed, from the days of the founders of the colony been the fashion among New Englanders to look to the pastor with profound reverence, not unmingled with awe. He was not to them as other men were. He was the just man made perfect ; the oracle of Divine will; the sure guide to truth. The heedless one who absented himself from
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the preaching on a Sabbath was hunted up by the tithing man, was admonished severely, and if he still persisted in his evil ways, was fined, exposed in the stocks, or imprisoned in the cage.
"In such a community the authority of the reverend man was almost supreme. To speak disrespectfully concerning him, to jeer at his sermons, or to laugh at his odd ways, was sure to bring down on the offender a heavy fine. His advice was often sought on matters of state, nor did he hesitate to give, unasked, his opinion on what he considered the arbitrary acts of the high functionaries of the province. In the years immediately pre- ceding the war, the power of the minister in matters of govern- ment and politics had been greatly impaired by the rise of that class of laymen in the foremost rank of which stood Otis, Han- cock and Samuel Adams. Yet his spiritual influence was as great as ever. He was still a member of the most learned and respected class in a community by no means ignorant. He was a divine and came of a family of divines. Not a few of the preachers who wit- nessed the revolution, could trace descent through an unbroken line of ministers, stretching back from son to father for three generations, to some canting, psalm-singing Puritan, who bore arms with distinction on the great day at Naseby, or had prayed at the head of Oliver's troops, and had, at the restoration, when old soldiers of the Protector were turning their swords into reap- ing-hooks and their pikes into pruning-knives, come over to New England to seek liberty of worship not found at home. Such a man had usually received a learned education at Harvard or at Yale, and would, in these days, be thought a scholar of high at- tainments. Of the men who Sunday after Sunday preached to the farmers and blacksmiths of the petty villages, one had explored the treasures of Hebrew literature, another was an authority on matters of Greek grammar, while a third added to his classical ac- quirements a knowledge of metaphysics and philosophy. His nar- rowmindedness and sectarianism, his proneness to see in the com- monest events of daily life manifestations of Divine wrath, his absurd pedantry, his fondness for scraps of Latin, may well seem laughable. Yet, bigoted as he was, the views he held and the
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doctrines he preached would by his great-grandfather have been despised as latitudinarian. Compared with Cotton or Hooker, a New England minister of 1784 had indeed made vast strides to- ward toleration. He was a very different man from the fanatics who burned Catholics at the stake, who drove out the Quakers, who sent Roger Williams to find an asylum among the Indians of Rhode Island, and sat in judgment on the witches of Salem and Andover. In the general advance from ignorance toward knowledge, the whole line was going forward."
Speaking of the minister just after the war of the revolu- tion, McMaster says: "When at last the independence the min- ister so much wished was achieved, he found himself, with all his neighbors, in the depth of poverty. His stipend, which had once been paid with punctuality to the last pistareen, was now delayed till long after the day of payment, and often consisted of bar- rels of turnips, bushels of corn, sacks of beans and flitches of bacon. Patches appeared on his homespun suit, and in extreme need he betook himself in his moments of leisure to teaching school. His home was turned into a seminary for half a dozen boys, whom he undertook, for a miserable pittance, to board, lodge, and fit for college. Yet his dignity and self-complacency were never for a moment laid aside. He had succeeded his father in the pastorship of the little white meeting-house, and he never left his charge till he was carried out to be laid away in the shade of the elm and chestnut trees in the burying ground beside the church.
"His sermon was the one event of the week. There were no concerts, no plays, no lectures, none of the amusements which in the great towns like Boston, drew away the thoughts from re- ligion. On a Sabbath the whole village turned out in force with note book and pencil to take down the text and so much of the discussion as they could, and, when the services were over, drew up along the aisle to let the great man and his family pass out first. Nor were his discourses altogether undeserving such marks of distinction. .
. In truth, of the writers who, up to the peace, and for many years after, put forth treatises, argu- ments, and expositions on metaphysical themes, scarcely one can
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be named who was not a native of New England, and a pastor of a New England church."
Town Ministers .- The earlier ministers in Westfield were ministers of the town, selected by authority of the town and paid by town appropriations. March 19, 1666, the town appropriated a lot of twelve acres for the minister. According to the account of Rev. Edward Taylor, written a few years later :
"Westfield, then Warronnokee, coming to be an English plantation, had at first Mr. John Holyoake, son of that Godly Captain Elizur Holyoake of Springfield, to dispense ye word of life amongst them Ano Dmi 1667, about half a year ; but in ye beginning of winter following, he, as finding ye ministry of the word too heavie for him, desisted; from which time till ye be- ginning of winter 1668 they had no minister."
Springfield was still recognized as the parent colony. Co- operating with a committee at Springfield, it was voted, in 1668, "that Capt. Cook shall go into the Bay to procure a minister." The record of this quest is wanting, but he probably obtained Rev. Moses Fisk, son of a minister of the church at Chelmsford, for he served as minister three years. They then tried to obtain a Mr. Adams from Dedham, but failed, finding him "not as yet movable from ye collidge."
Mr. Edward Taylor was the next minister sought and ob- tained. He was the minister selected by the town soon after its organization. The town, including every man, woman and child within its borders, was his parish. For more than half a cent- ury, during its early formative period, he was the religious, the educational, and, in large degree, the civil leader of the town. An outline of his life cannot fail to present facts of importance relating to the early history of the town. A letter by one of his descendants, Henry W. Taylor, Esq., of Canandaigua, to William G. Bates and dated October 1, 1869, gives some facts pertaining to the early life of Rev. Edward Taylor. From this we quote :
"He was born in England, educated for the ministry, stud- ied seven years in one of their universities; but the ejection of 2,000 dissenting clergymen in 1662, and the persecutions which that class of Christians suffered, induced him to a voluntary ex-
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ile. It seems he was then an ardent anti-monarchist, and his early writings are said to breathe, in no doubtful terms, his strong aversion to the rulings of the existing dynasty. He was, through his whole life, a most voluminous writer, keeping a diary of the running events of his life, and recording things of pass- ing interest. He left a large number of written folio volumes, and he was in the habit of transcribing, with his own hand, the books which were loaned to him by his friend, Judge Sewall of Boston. Mr. Taylor also studied medicine; and during his life was accustomed to minister as well to the diseases of the body, as of the soul. He also gave attention to the study of natural his- tory, and some of his compositions were published in the scien- tific literature of the day."
The description of Mr. Taylor's voyage across the Atlantic his residence in Cambridge and his entering upon the work of the ministry in Westfield we quote from his diary :
"Anno Domini 1668. April 22, being Lord's day, between ten and eleven o'clock at night, I came for sea, taking boat at. Execution Dock, Wapping. They got to the Downs, May 1, and we are forced to tarry for the winds. I sent a letter to London and another to Sketchley. May 3, I had a sad forenoon, but to- ward evening the ship-master sent for me, and enjoined me to go to prayer with them. May 14, against Dover. I sent a letter to my brother Richard. May 15, against the Isle of Wight. May 20, against the Lisard. Lord's day, May 24, I then being put to exercise spoke from John 3d, 3d. May 31, Lord's day, wind west. I was very sick, so that I could not perform the duties of the day. June 7, our latitude is forty-three degrees. These two last days we sailed well nigh 150 leagues. I being somewhat bet- ter in health than before, did exercise from and apply the doc- trine that before I approved. June 13, we exercised from Isaiah 3d, 11th. June 18, our latitude 41 degrees, longitude 51 degrees. After dinner I read the 4th chapter of John, in Greek. Lord's. day, June 21, I approved the doctrine I delivered the Lord's day before. Lord's day, June 28, I exercised from the words, "For the reward of their hands shall be given them," Isaiah 3d, 11th. July 2d, sounded 50 fathoms. July 4th, thick fog; seeing land
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on both hands, Plymouth on the left and Salem on the right, to- wards sun-setting, about five o'clock we saw the Island in our passage up to Boston. About three o'clock on Lord's day, July 5th, in the morning we came to shore. July 23d I was admitted into the college, pupil under Mr. Thomas Graves, Sir Fellow in a great, yet civil class. I continued there three years and a quar- ter, all which time I was college butler. I proposed to lay down my place at the commencement. The President by his incessant request and desires prevailed with me to tarry in it, as for three years before; but after a quarter's trial he (I) was invited by Mr. Thomas Flint of Braintree to come and study with him. He- (I) went in 1671, but soon returned and settled in the college, and was instituted scholar of the house the 16th day of Novem- ber, 1671; but the 17th being quarter day, Thomas Dewey a mes- senger from Westfield on Connecticut river, to the Bay to get a minister for the people, being by eight or nine elders, met at the- lecture at Boston, directed to myself, came to me with a letter from Mr. Increase Mather ; and whom, for answer, I referred to the Rev. President Chauncey and Fellows ; and finding Mr. Dan- forth for it, Mr. Oakes indifferent, rather advising to it, the- President altogether against it."
At this time the President and Fellows wanted to retain Mr. Taylor for a Fellow. But Mr. Danforth the Chief Magistrate. advised, and did on the 18th advise with Mr. Increase Mather and Mr. Flint. Their advice was positive for going to Westfield.
"Nov. 27, I set out with Mr. Dewey, and arrived at West- field Dec. 1. On Lord's day I preached to them from Matthew 3d, 2d-my first sermon, Dec. 3, 1671.
"My going to Westfield with Mr. Dewey, was a great part of the way, by markd trees : I arrived and lodged the first night at Captain Cook's, in the little village."
The Westfield settlement was small when Mr. Taylor came into it; the cloud of King Philip's war was gathering about to burst in devastation and slaughter upon the scattered towns; Westfield seemed especially exposed to attack, being the western- most settlement. It seemed to be no time to organize churches and provide for the needs of a fixed population. However hope-
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THE TOWN OF WESTFIELD
ful the outlook, when Mr. Taylor found his way with Mr. Dewey on their horses through the forest from Cambridge to Westfield, times soon changed for the worse, and whether this outpost of western advance could be maintained, was soon a very grave question.
But love is not bound by prudential considerations. Mr. Taylor was winning the affections of a worthy woman, who had already won his heart. By what sacreligious hands so touching and fulsome evidence of his attachment as a love letter, written not long before his marriage, should have been deposited among the collections of the Connecticut historical society, we cannot tell. Yet it is there and we submit a copy of it, as transcribed by his great-grandson :
"WESTFIELD, Mass., 8th day of the 7th month, 1674.
"MY DOVE :- I send you not my heart, for that I hope is sent to Heaven long since, and unless it has awfully deceived me it hath not taken up its lodgings in any one's bosom on this side the royal city of the Great King; but yet the most of it that is allowed to be layed out upon any creature doth safely and singly fall to your share. So much my post pigeon presents you with here in these lines. Look not (I entreat you) on it as one of love's hyperboles. If I borrow the beams of some sparkling met- aphor to illustrate my respects unto thyself by, for you having made my breast the cabinet of your affections as I yours mine, I know not how to offer a fitter comparison to set out my love by, than to compare it unto a golden ball of pure fire rolling up and down my breast, from which there flies now and then a spark like a glorious beam from the body of the flaming sun. But alas ! striving to catch these sparks into a love letter unto yourself, and to gild it with them as with a sun beam, find, that by what time they have fallen through my pen upon my paper, they have lost their shine and fall only like a little smoke thereon instead of gilding them. Wherefore, finding myself so much deceived, I am ready to begrudge my instruments, for though my love within my breast is so large that my heart is not sufficient to contain it, yet they can make it no more room to ride into, than to squeeze it up betwixt my black ink and white paper. But know that it is the coarsest part that is couchant there, for the finest is too
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fine to clothe in any linguist and huswifry, or to be expressed in words, and though this letter bears but the coarsest part to you, yet the purest is improved for you. But now, my dear love, lest my letter should be judged the lavish language of a lover's pen, I shall endeavor to show that conjugal love ought to exceed all other love. 1st, appears from that which it represents, viz .: The respect there is betwixt Christ and his church, Eph. 5th, 25th, although it differs from that in kind; for that is spiritual and this human, and in degree, that is boundless and transcendent, this limited and subordinate ; yet it holds out that this should be cordial and with respect to all other transcendent. 2d, Because conjugal love is the ground of conjugal union, or conjugal shar- ing the effects of this love, is also a ground of this union. 3d, From those Christian duties which are incumbent on persons in this state as not only a serving God together, a praying together, a joining in the ruling and instructing their family together, which could not be carried on as it should be without a great degree of true love, and also a mutual giving each other to each other, a mutual succoring each other in all states, ails, griev- ances; and how can this be when there is not a love exceeding all other love to any creature ? And hereby if persons in this state have not love exceeding all love, it's with them for the most part as with the strings of an instrument not tuned up, when struck upon makes but a jarring, harsh sound. But when we get the wires of an instrument equally drawn up, and rightly struck upon, sound together, make sweet music whose harmony doth enravish the ear; so when the golden strings of true affec- tion are struck up into a right conjugal love, thus sweetly doth this state then harmonize to the comfort of each other and to the glory of God when sanctified. But yet, the conjugal love must exceed all other, yet it must be kept within bounds, for it must be subordinate to God's glory; the which that mine may be so, it having got you in its heart, doth offer my heart with you in it as a more rich sacrifice into God through Christ, and so it sub- scribeth me, Your true love till death, EDWARD TAYLOR.
This for my friend and only beloved Miss Eliz-
abeth Fitch at her father's house in Norwich."
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Miss Fitch was the daughter of Rev. James Fitch, one of the original proprietors, and the first clergyman settled in Nor- wich, Conn. Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Fitch before the close of the year.
During Philip's war he and his bride shared the toils, the privations, the anxieties and the heartrending sorrows of the colonists. Every night, for many months, he with his wife and others repaired to the fort, one of the forted houses of which mention is often made in the town records, and every night the watch was set to guard the encircling palisades and give notice if the enemy approached. In the midst of the war, as we have seen, the central authority of the colonies urged the settlers to abandon the town and remove to Springfield. The stout reply of the little settlement we have given. The framer of this reply was the young minister, whose heart was with the people and whose patriotic determination fitted him for leadership in "times that tried men's souls."
But the terrible years of Philip's war wore away. Westfield had been saved from the fire and slaughter that drove the settlers of Deerfield and of Northfield from their homes, though several of the people of Westfield had fallen victims "to ye rage of ye enemy." A brighter future dawned. Steps were taken to es- tablish a church and to install Mr. Taylor.
The letters inviting a council bore the date of July, 1679. August 27 was the day for the assembling of the council. The day is described as the last fourth day of the sixth month. This is in accord with the ecclesiastical year, old style, which began the year with the first of March. The council, we are told, "con- sisted of Rev. Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, Mr. Strong, ruling elder, and Capt. Aaron Cook and Lieut. Clark, messen- gers ; Rev. John Russell of Hadley, and Lieut. Smith and Mr. Younglove, messengers; Rev. Pelatiah Glover of Springfield, teaching elder and I. Holyoke, Dea. Burt and Mr. Parsons, mes- sengers ; and one messenger from Meriden, Conn., the pastor being detained by sickness ; there were present also, as guests, the Rev. Samuel Hooker of Farmington, Conn., and the 'Worshipful Maj. John Pynchon' of Springfield. The council assisted in organ-
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izing the church, consisting of the following members :- Edward Taylor, John Maudsley (Moseley), Samuel Loomis, Isaac Phelps, from the church in Windsor; Josiah Dewey and John Ingersoll from Northampton, and John Root from Farmington, Conn. The council then proceeded in accordance with the expressed wish of the church to ordain Mr. Taylor as pastor."
Mr. Taylor, by study of medicine, had prepared himself to care for the bodies as well as the souls of his charge. He was much beloved and respected by the people of the town. However severe the stress of war, however straitened their cir- cumstances, the town records show their readiness to vote his full salary.
Mr. Taylor, like other country ministers, was a farmer. His people could not help him to write sermons, they could help him in his field work. It seems to have been the custom for his parishioners to render him voluntary aid in haying and harvest time. There is a vote on record providing such aid and also re- quiring the women of the town to assist Mrs. Taylor in spinning. When Mr. Taylor was advanced in life, the town increased his salary one-third. With filial tenderness they provided by abun- dant gifts for his table on Thanksgiving and other festive occa- sions.
One of his daughters married Isaac Stiles, whose son became president of Yale college. President Stiles made these notes of Mr. Taylor: "He was an excellent classical scholar, being mas- ter of three learned languages, a great historian, and every way a learned man. He had a steady correspondence with Judge Sewall of Boston, who duly communicated to him all the trans- actions in the assembly, and occurrences in the nation." "He was a vigorous advocate of Oliver Cromwell, and of civil and religious liberty. He was an incessant student." "A man of small stature, but firm; of quick passions, yet serious and grave. Exemplary in piety, and for a sacred observance of the Lord's day."
For many years he was the only physician in Westfield and for many miles around. Some of his medical, as well as his the- ological books, he transcribed. Natural history was hardly recog-
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nized as a school study, yet he accumulated no little knowledge of plants, minerals and animals. He continued to minister to his people fifty-seven and one-half years, preaching regularly till within a few years of his death in 1729, at the age of eighty- seven.
Mr. Nehemiah Bull succeeded Mr. Taylor. He, if not eccen- tric, was a man of marked individuality. He died in 1740, in the thirty-ninth year of his age and the fourteenth of his minis- try. Mr. David Parsons for a time supplied the pulpit, then Rev. John Ballantine began his life-long pastorate replete with toil. He died in 1776, aged sixty, having discharged the duties of a pastor for thirty-five years. Dr. Lathrop, for sixty-five years pastor of the church at West Springfield, says of him : "He was blessed with superior abilities, a clear understanding, a capacious mind and a solid judgment." "His ministerial life was a useful pattern to his brethren, and his Christian life was an instructive copy to his people."
Rev. Noah Atwater was the next pastor. He left a tutor- ship at Yale and proved himself a very scholarly and efficient educational and religious leader. During his pastorate the plan of an academy was formed, a charter obtained, a fund collected, a finely proportioned building erected and the fourth academy in the state, the only one in Western Massachusetts, began its successful career. Mr. Atwater always prepared sermons in ad- vance of the immediate demand, visited every family frequently, before the academy was opened trained young men for college, and largely increased the numbers and the efficiency of the church. He was no common man, and, during the twenty years of his ministry, he evidently produced a deep impression upon the people of the town. He was a man of unceasing energy and was profoundly respected by his people. At the close of the twentieth year of his ministry, taking for his text, "Having therefore obtained help of God I continue unto this day," he delivered his last sermon November 22, 1801.
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